UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Senior Kathryn Munks capped her career at the Blue-White Golf Course with a dominant performance on Friday at the National Open. The Nittany Lions women's team captured the team title with 31 points.
Munks and the rest of the Nittany Lions ran a strong race to secure the team title. From the opening gun, Munks positioned herself in the front pack of runners. Along with Munks through the first mile were fellow Nittany Lions Julia Paternain and Alison Willingmyre. By the second mile mark, Munks had taken over the lead and was followed by Paternain and Willingmyre. At the three mile mark, Munks held a sizable lead over the rest of the pack.
Munks completed her season sweep at the Blue-White Golf Course, finishing the race with a time of 20:13.0. With her time, Munks is tied for sixth all-time with Jillian Hunsberger '16 with her time of 20:13.0 at the National Open meet.
Munks is your winner!#WeAre #PSUXC pic.twitter.com/7401LNiYW6
— Penn State Track & Field/Cross Country (@PennStateTFXC) October 18, 2019
Julia Paternain finished fifth, running 20:42.8 on the 6k course. Alison Willingmyre (20:50.7) and Danae Rivers (20:52.8) finished sixth and seventh respectively. Megan Ciasullo (21:15.8) rounded out the team score with a 17th place finish.
The Top Five Finishers for the Nittany Lions during today's National Open!#WeAre pic.twitter.com/XAqeCwnqB5
— Penn State Track & Field/Cross Country (@PennStateTFXC) October 18, 2019
"On the women's side, we were excited to run on our home course today," head coach John Gondak said after the women's team title. "This was the first time I think we were running at 100% all year and really impressed with how the women competed. The results showed that they were hungry to go out and have a great race today."
The men's cross country team finished third at the National Open on Friday afternoon. Ben Bumgarner was the top finisher for the men's team, placing ninth with a time of 25:48.5. Billy McDevitt ran 25:49.9 to finish 11th followed by Owen Wing who finished 12th with a time of 25:50.4.
Alex Tomasko (25:53.4) finished 14th and Isaac Davis ran 26:07.9 to finish 31st to round out the team scoring. The Nittany Lions finished with 76 team points.
"The men ran well," said Gondak. "Temple and Penn are both very good, they are ranked ahead of us in the region and we gave them a good run for the money but we came up a little bit short. We've got another month to keep training and we see them again at the regional meet. We had some solid effort on the men's side as a good tune-up to get ready for the Big Ten."
The Nittany Lions travel to Colmbus, Ohio for the Big Ten Championships on November 3.